[Console Games]Why developers are designing video games for accessibility

[Maheso]

With more than 3 billion estimated players around the world today, the video game industry has grown far beyond its kid-focused, arcade origins. Yet while more people pick up and play, limitations of the games still leave some behind.

It used to be rare to have settings to adjust anything beyond volume control. Options for subtitles, the ability to completely remap the controller or change the game’s brightness were scarce. But now mainstream developers are leveling up – increasingly considering accessibility when designing their games, whether to accommodate a visual impairment, a motor control issue or an anxiety disorder.

The $184 billion game industry’s massive growth over the last couple decades includes an expanding number of people with disabilities interested in playing, according to Alec Frey, a senior producer at Obsidian Entertainment.

“That gets executives to just look at this as more of an option because there’s a much bigger pool of people,” he said.

Let’s say you open the recently remade Sony game “The Last of Us Part I” (now adapted into a popular HBO show). The first thing you see is a question about what language you want to use, and whether you need a screen reader to read the menu text. After that, you are asked to adjust the brightness and contrast of the screen, before you get several options to change the size and color of subtitles. Lastly, you are directed to a menu where you can turn on presets for vision, hearing and motor accessibility. All of this happens before reaching the main menu where you actually start the game.

Anita Mortaloni, accessibility director at Xbox, said such features not only help players who have disabilities, but allow most people to enjoy the game no matter the circumstance.

“How you play changes over the course of your life or during the day. If I’ve been staring at the computer all day, maybe I need night mode. If I broke my wrist snowboarding, the standard controller mapping doesn’t work for me anymore,” Mortaloni said. “And so by adding accessibility options in, it means that I can play how I need to in that moment.”

She said it’s Xbox policy that creators consider accessibility from the very start of the development cycle. That makes integration much easier compared to previous decades, when features and accommodations were often slapped on at the end of a game’s creation, she added.

“If there are barriers to play because a game’s not accessible or inclusive, people won’t play it,” Mortaloni said.

 

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/arts/why-developers-are-designing-video-games-for-accessibility